"Shall I praise thee like the delicate bloom of spring cherry blossoms, that grow on the furthest hilltops of my land? A fair comparison would not meet such simplicity."

Aang could hear himself mumbling his Shu lines loosely, as if he were preparing himself for what was ahead. With Momo propped loyally on his shoulder, chirping away at the air and looking at his friend intently, the boy couldn't concentrate on the script as he held it open that morning, in front of a Southern Air Temple balcony. At the corner of his eye he saw flying bison overhead and his friends pack their equipment for their big Saturday Air Dodgeball tournament.

Somehow he could not get Katara's gleeful expression from his mind, especially when she walked home with Zuko the day before. It vexed the boy's stomach muscles, thinking that he could hardly stand a chance to be with this pretty, amazing girl... even if they were Oma and Shu.

"True love will take time to develop, Aang... especially if you are the Avatar. But that doesn't mean it is impossible to find..."

It was one of the few topics that Principle Roku had brought up with him in that sudden encounter in the courtyards yesterday... and as much as Aang wanted to believe him, the butterflies still rumbled in his stomach, as if hungry to feel a certain girl's voice.

He had to face fact that his knees were shaking with nervousness, wondering whether or not the lovely waterbender would actually show up for their picnic of sea prunes and rice milk.

Why did this all sound so ridiculous to him?

The boy was overlooking the temple's sunrise from the balcony that morning, eyes so droopy it practically sang out that he'd barely gotten an hour's worth of sleep. His tired form was at least strong enough to hold the Omashu script in his hand, showing that he had at least attempted to get a few lines memorized ahead of time.

"Hey man, you okay?" One of the young airbenders went over to Aang on the balcony, as others were preparing to take off for the Northern Air Temple on their respective bison. "Why don't you come with us?"

Aang turned his head to where the voice was coming from, and he did not even manage to change his tired expression into a smile. He just looked up to his friend and shook his head, waving a quick hand as he saw a few of the flying bison take off already.

"Sorry, but I'm going to be heading to school soon."

The other airbender's light brown eyes studied his tired face. "School?... on a Saturday?"

The young Avatar-in-Training blinked, not exactly knowing how to explain himself out of that particular reason. He had told his friends that Praying Mantis High School was a regular five-day school, and that in spite of the fact that he couldn't play on the Air Dodgeball team, he would be free on Saturdays to catch their games and cheer them on. Apparently, this had to be a good excuse... and he would die before mentioning anything about a girl...

"Um... I have a training session with Avatar Roku... he's... gonna start teaching me firebending!"

The other boy's light blue eyes suddenly widened in shock, and Aang was so caught off guard, he didn't know what else he could say.

"Firebending? Already!?" His friend seemed to be more excited than Aang was, and it made him feel like the biggest liar in the universe. "Wow! You gotta tell me how that goes!"

Aang's forehead felt heavy with wrinkles, watching as his friend leapt onto the last flying bison and took off for their Air Dodgeball tournament.

It was like a whirlwind of stress had suddenly passed through the boy, remembering how he had talked to Katara about his mastery in Airbending... and how he'd shown Toph that he too could be a potential Earthbender... and after one little lie, the boy knew that the whole Southern Air Temple would expect him to demonstrate Firebending by the end of the year.

What am I doing? Aang thought to himself, as Appa flew over the purple sky of the sunrise, taking him to Praying Mantis High that early afternoon to finally meet with Katara. Ironic, how he was trying so hard to hide his identity from people and not make it a big deal, and yet here he was... practically singing the fact that he was the Avatar.

Roku came into his mind again... and he wondered if there was code of conduct he was ultimately breaking after all of these secrets and lies he was making about his Avatar ability.

"I learned long ago, Aang, that in order to understand the responsibilities of the world, you must live and interact with its people... the people of your generation... and use the time that is given to you to create a project. One that will enable a greater good among the four nations."

Aang heard the raspy voice of the Avatar humbly, as they both took a brisk walk within the woods.

"Is that why you built Praying Mantis High School? So kids from the four nations could get along with each other?"

"In a way, yes," said Principle Roku simply, "During my year-long mentorship with Avatar Kyoshi, I was taken to her own established project in Kyoshi Island, where Non-Earthbenders were kept safe from the corruption and hatred of their respective Earthbending people. It was a philosophy that worked for her... but unfortunately, not for me."

"What do you mean?" Aang asked curiously, as Momo suddenly hopped from Roku's shoulder over to his younger master's, chirping by the sound of the woods.

"Avatar Kyoshi believed that in order for her Earth Kingdom to live peacefully, they had to live separately, without the Earth Bender's culture disturbing the Non-Earthbender's. During my time there, I realized that it wasn't the philosophy I wanted to pursue as the Avatar... and as my life-long project, I chose to establish this experimental school... an open community for Benders and non-Benders alike."

Aang raised his eyelids slightly, remembering what Jet had told him about respecting the non-Benders at the school. There was no doubt in his mind that other kids felt the same way, but what if other kids were reluctant about it?

"It will be your duty this year to interact with as many young people as you can, and let it build inspiration for your own project once the title of the Avatar is passed on to you..."

Aang sighed, recalling those long and wise words of Avatar Roku as he flew on Appa over the grand forest of the Earth Kingdom towards the school. This project was just another thing he had to work on during the course of this year, aside from memorizing his OmaShu lines, practicing the four elements of Bending, winning a certain girl's heart, and hiding his true identity from people for the rest of the year.

Gah... isn't Math with Mr. Pakku bad enough?

But all that anxiety seemed to disappear, as the boy noticed a familiar smile waiting for him at the foot of the school's stone steps... a girl with hairloops sitting properly, and with a small string bag of food held on her arm

Katara's hand waved at him as Appa landed in front of the school's entrance, and the young airbender sighed immediately, almost forgetting that he had been feeling so stressed over everything that Avatar Roku had told him.

Aang didn't take more than two seconds in between landing Appa on the ground, sliding off of the bison's forehead, and running to give his lovely friend a monumental hug for a greeting. She accepted it without question, giving her distinctive musical laugh in return, and Aang could faintly tell that she had blushed a little as they parted.

He noticed how her eyes were carrying a bit of interest to his forehead, and suddenly... the boy blinked in shock.

"Oh no!" Aang felt the baldness of his scalp with one hand, realizing that he'd left his bandana in his room. "I... my tattoo... Vice Principal Zhao's gonna kill me!"

Katara laughed, "Don't worry, it's Saturday... he's usually not in the office on the weekends. Trust me, I know."

She lowered her chin slightly, embarrassed, as if she had been hiding a certain confession and wasn't sure if it was the right time to bring it up. Aang studied her face lovingly, trying to gather her expression through the pretty hairloops that hung over her eyes.

But before the boy could ask her what was wrong, she tapped on the boy's bright blue arrow playfully with a finger, adding "It looks good on you."

"Thanks..." Aang could feel his lips curl into a childish grin at her touch. Without saying a word, they looked at each other for a brief silly moment and then proceeded to walk over near the Water Tennis courts for their OmaShu readings. Katara seemed to be more sincerely interested in the trail they were walking, instead of holding a conversation.

"It's really great to see you." The boy forced himself to speak in order to break the awkward silence, and he couldn't help but feel like he was walking on air more and more with every step they took together. "I was scared that you weren't going to show up--"

Katara blinked over at him, confused, and suddenly the butterflies in Aang's stomach turned into heavy stones.

Why in the world did I say that? He thought foolishly. Now she probably thinks I'm a weirdo, or that I think about her all the time

"Oh, I don't blame you," was Katara's sincere reply, with a hint of a smile at the boy. "I tend to have a reputation for being late all the time... but I guess you've already heard that, huh."

Aang studied the girl's faint-hearted look in her eyes, feeling relieved that she wasn't overanalyzing his comments... yet curious to know everything that was on her own mind. The boy decided to lie, but promising himself it would be the last time he would ever lie to her.

"Yeah, I heard." The boy said it with a tone that showed he didn't think much of that particular weakness, not wanting to look away from her beautiful blue eyes, as sad as they were. "I mean as long as you're not late with me... you can keep doing it as much as you want!"

Katara chuckled slightly at the boy's attempt for humor, and sat herself down on the comfortable grass. She opened her OmaShu script, skimming through the lines in the first scene they had together. It was something about the way she quickly locked her gaze into the script, not wanting to look at anything else... that concerned Aang for some reason and made that feeling in his stomach practically disappear. He had to say something.

"Um... are you okay?" Aang felt his throat tighten as he asked her humbly, taking out the canteen of organic rice milk from his bag.

"Yeah," Katara then replied meekly, looking up to the sweet pair of silver eyes, "I'm sorry, Aang... I just have a lot on my mind... how I have to stay out of trouble this year."

Aang winced, and the girl caught that amusingly, and decided to explain herself further.

"I don't mean for it to happen, it's just that... sometimes when I help people, I forget to look after myself. Last year, Azula did some really cruel things to Yue, and I flipped out. I mean really flipped out... waterbending almost the entire swimteam's pool of water over on her."

"What!?" Aang certainly knew who Azula was, and the fact that Katara had launched an attack on her made him feel both frightened and proud at the same time.

"Yeah, I know." Katara nodded with a tone of disbelief, as if she could hardly imagine herself doing something like that. She took out a small container of sea prunes from her bag as she continued to speak. "Azula fought me back. She had to... I mean, if she hadn't known how to Fire-launch herself away from that giant tidal wave... I probably would've killed her for what she did to Yue."

Aang stared at this lovely girl with awe and disbelief, almost certain that this was an entirely different person she was talking about. He didn't even want to know what Azula had done to the other Waterbender... seeing that sad face in Katara's eyes was bad enough.

"Anyway, to make a long story short... Vice Principal Zhao had us both suspended, and I had to meet with Mr. Iroh once a week for counseling for the rest of the year. Azula... the brilliant orator that she is... talked her way out of suspension and ended up getting elected as class president."

Aang shook his head in disgust. "But she bended in the school grounds! Why didn't she get punished for that?"

"Because this school lives and breathes Fire Nation colors, Aang. That's why." Katara frowned as she said so, clearly still holding a grudge from last year. "Azula could never get punished because most of Praying Mantis's administration is loyal to the Fire Nation... especially their royalty."

"But that's crazy." Aang tried to gather a few things that the Avatar had told him the day before, trying to piece it all together. "This school is supposed to be a community... right? Principal Roku set it up that way; every Bender and Non-Bender should follow the same rules and punishments."

"I know, but the Principal cannot control everyone else's beliefs, Aang." Katara explained assertively and angrily. "Yue and I wanted to change all that last year, because we thought it was unfair that this school was secretly supportive of Fire Nation culture. I mean... why wouldn't they be, since the founding principal himself is from the Fire Nation?

"Yue was the one who tried to run against Azula for class presidency, and try to make a certain difference with the way kids saw this school. She had all these amazing ideas... but even before she could prove herself to the school, Azula did everything she could to bring her down and keep the Fire Nation dominant here. It's as if her life's purpose as Fire Nation princess is to make everyone else feel small and insignificant."

Katara scoffed at her own statement, quickly taking out a sea prune to eat, and offering the container to Aang. The boy's mind was still swimming in thought and disbelief, he practically didn't realize he picked out a sea prune and placed it in his mouth to chew.

It was like tasting the warm, salty bitterness of an unripe banana, and it took the boy by extreme surprise by the look of his sour-patched lips. Nevertheless, he still managed to smile at Katara as he chewed into the sea prune in his mouth, the bitter taste becoming stronger and stronger every time.

The girl laughed musically when she noticed the boy's face, and it seemed to lighten her expression up a bit. She took another sea prune out for herself, and then managed to open her OmaShu script once again with sincerity and ease, like she suddenly felt a lot better.

"Yue and I both felt that Azula was obsessed about this presidency thing... like it was her way of showing that she could control anything she wanted. She manipulated Yue so much last year, and she's always been so hard on her brother... saying that he's not good enough for the Fire Nation throne and humiliating him about his sloppy firebending technique. That boy has gotten so messed up because of her... I'm pretty sure she had something to do with that brutal scar on his face."

"Is it true that you're going to run against her for presidency?" Aang wanted to keep the subject on Azula, afraid that he might hear more about Zuko and have that image of them together come back into his mind again.

Katara shrugged loosely, "Well, somebody has to fight against Azula's philosophy, but I'm still thinking about it. I just have to be really careful with my temper, should I decide to do that."

"I think you'll be fine." Aang commented, mostly because he knew she wanted to hear that, but having a lot of faith that it was true.

"Thanks, Aang." Katara looked away in mid-thought, then smiled back at him with a certain freshness in her gaze. "Besides, this play is going to be something really big, so I'm going to have to think about that, besides helping out in water-tennis..."

The boy took out a couple of round cups to pour some rice milk from his canteen, "Oh yeah, so is Coach Hama still letting you play on the team, after what happened yesterday?"

He handed the cup of milk to Katara, and she accepted it with kindness, but with an uncomfortable glance from her eyes. "She's letting me sit in on a few tournaments for the start of the season, so I can watch and learn the techniques along with the team. Once she's seen that I've cooled down - and know that she doesn't have to use bloodbending on me anymore - she'll let me play again."

"Is that what that crazy thing was called? Bloodbending?"

"Yep." Katara involuntarily massaged her right arm, as if easing a muscle tension she had felt from that painful technique the day before. "It's a waterbending technique she had taught herself many years ago, but it isn't something she's proud of either."

"Why? What happened to her?" Aang narrowed his eyes, feeling that as the future Avatar, it was his duty to know about alternative forms of bending.

"Before Praying Mantis was built, Coach Hama worked for Avatar Roku as a sentinel, going off into the fire nation to retrieve information on those who were plotting against him. She was the one who found out about Fire Lord Sozin's imperialistic plan... wanting to invade the world and establish a pure Fire Nation culture."

Aang gulped a good amount of rice milk nervously, being full aware that the role of the Avatar carried so many dangers. Katara took a sip of the milk to gather her thoughts, taking a pause before she continued.

"The story goes that she was captured by one of Sozin's unknown followers and was subjected to torture and starvation. I think it was a great combination of patience and devastation that kept her alive, because in any case, Hama discovered bloodbending in that prison. It was the only way she'd kept herself nourished and strong... by controlling the water in her own body, and she eventually set herself free by bloodbending the guards in her favor.

"And when Avatar Roku first questioned him about the plans, Sozin denied it... but Coach Hama forced the Fire Lord to confess his plans through bloodbending torture. It was because of Hama that Sozin was immediately de-throned, and why the Fire Nation lost its respect."

"Whoa..." Aang felt utterly speechless, suddenly losing his sense of thirst as he looked down at his cup of rice milk.

"Yeah," Katara agreed, and set the rice milk down at her side. "So I can understand why she hates using it on me. Maybe it's for the best that I don't waterbend for a while... it might be dangerous."

Aang gazed over at Katara's face, wondering what he could say to her after that.

"But, I don't get it..." the boy had to bring this up, since it seemed that he had suddenly been recognizing two sides of Katara. "... you were so nice when you first said hi to me, but when you waterbend, it's like you're a completely different person. Why do you get so violent in the game?"

Katara pursed her lips in slight sadness, closing her eyes as if not wanting to hear those words... or perhaps attempting to find an answer for the young boy. He almost gasped as the girl reopened her eyes, and saw a shimmering glow of tears reflecting in them.

Inside, the boy was panicking. "F– forget I said that. I'm sorry... I... What page do we start on in the script?... Seven?"

He was fumbling through the pages in the script all of a sudden, too afraid to look at the sad expession in Katara's face, feeling that it ultimately kill him.

"Aang..." her soft voice remained the same, trying to calm him down from this ridiculous anxiety. "It's not your fault, please..."

The boy was not ready for this. He was not ready to feel the gentle hand of the girl he adored touch his cheek that way, stopping everything he was doing just to look over to her eyes.

Those big, brilliantly shimmering eyes.

Wherever he found the energy to speak then, it must've come straight from the cosmic universe holding him together at that moment. He could feel his lips quivering.

"Did... did you want to talk about it? You don't have to. I swear, I won't let you--"

And suddenly, the young airbender's world closed in on him, feeling the softest lips plant themselves onto his cheek for a light little kiss. A kiss that had sent him practically to the spirit world and back.

When the boy opened his eyes, he could see a faint, yet sad grin on the girl's face as she pulled back to see him clearly. Neither of them spoke for what seemed seconds...minutes...and Katara then let out a small giggle to add to her impulsive move.

"Um... were we rehearsing, just now?" Aang had to bring humor into the situation, as he was practically about to fall apart from the warmth he felt on his cheek.

Katara composed herself again, letting out a slight sigh of relief and knowing that those uncomfortable feelings of sadness were gradually leaving her. She stared at the young boy kindly and with a bit of awkward hesitation.

"I just wanted to thank you... for..." her eyes looked away for a moment, nervously, "for caring about me so much."

It made the two of them smile in reassurance.

Aang wanted to ask her so many other things, like if Yue had already forgiven her from that dangerous waterbending move, or if talking to Iroh had helped her control that anger of hers. Or if there was something going on between Zuko and her... something that was a little deeper than friendship. It wasn't just to get a bit more of an understanding about her, but also to hear that lovely voice of hers a little bit more.

Instead, the boy opened his own OmaShu script and turned over to the same page that Katara was skimming through.

"So according to the director's notes... Oma is wandering lost in the woods, because a giant earthquake separated her and a few members of her tribe. Shu is lurking inside the woods on an assignment to capture fellow prisoners from Oma's tribe, and that's when he sees her... Ready to try that part out? It was the same scene we had in the audition."

As he spoke, the boy's mind was still replaying that soft kiss that Katara had given to him without warning, and Katara giggled, practically hearing what the boy's intentions were for this particular scene.

"Actually, do you mind if we looked over another scene instead?" she proposed cleverly. "Maybe the one where they meet the great Badger Moles in the caves? I haven't looked at that one yet..."

Aang blushed in response, because it was all that he could do then, hearing the girl's voice so sincerely. It was like all of a sudden, he didn't care which scenes they would go over; he was just glad that they were finally becoming so comfortable with each other's company.

As strange as it sounded, the boy adored her imperfections. Funny, how at first, Aang had only seen her through her eyes... so perfect and light blue on the surface, as someone who had never broken a rule in her life. But after so much talk, he noticed the color of her blue eyes so much deeper, as a person who carried both strengths and weaknesses far into the vast depths of the sky. She was more human to him know, and Aang could not help but feel closer to that.

A/N: I continue to praise you, faithful readers, for not giving up on this slow story's progession. Ugh, there's just so much I want to put in about other characters, but it'll all come together. You'll be seeing a lot more of OmaShu, more Zuko, more evil Azula, more SmellerShot, more Toph-the-football player, more Mai and Jet moments, and believe it or not... more OnJi backstory! It'll all be worth it... my goal is to finish before the final episodes come out! Hugs. --MM